Rime
by farfetched4
Summary: The shift from child to adult in humans is a fact known and begrudgingly accepted by the Guardians, but Jack has never even considered it. Some truths though, however painful and scary to think of, must be faced.


Jack Frost felt somewhat at ease, especially for not being in the midst of a snow drift.

His staff was lent up against a wall close to him, absent of the frost that usually covered it, and he sat on the bed, absently forming an intricate snowflake in front of him, seeing how complicated he could make it before he sent it to one of those labs Jamie had mentioned, that looked at snowflakes under something called a microscope, which apparently made tiny things appear larger so they could be studied. It sounded quite boring to him, but he guessed if his job was to look at snowflakes all day he wouldn't mind _too_much. He just preferred making them, was all. Along with making millions of them and making it snow, and all the other things he could do. But he supposed if he were human, it was a job he could cope with having.

Once his creation had reached a suitable level of mind-boggling, he smirked, the wind opening the window just slightly to allow it to fly out and up to just below the clouds, before speeding its way towards one of those labs. Apparently there was one about two hours' drive from Burgess, according to Jamie, but Jack could make the snowflake travel supernaturally fast, and so, five minutes later, he felt it land. Too bad he couldn't see the person's expression who was now studying the most complicated snowflake in the world. That could have been interesting.

Object of interest gone, he turned to set pure blue eyes on Jamie himself, sitting at his desk chewing lightly on the end of his pencil, frowning slightly at the paper in front of him. Jack almost huffed, aggravated that he was that Jamie thought 'homework' was more important than him, but managed to retain it, aware that the quicker the piece of homework was finished, the quicker they could have a snowball fight. Jack wondered if Jamie's friends would want to join them, or whether they all had this 'homework' that seemed to be the bane of their lives.

If it was so boring, he didn't really get why they didn't ditch it for something more interesting. Not half an hour ago he'd caught Jamie staring at his books with a look of longing, as if he'd much rather be doing something else. When the spirit had mentioned this though, Jamie had simply grinned, and said it shouldn't take much longer. That had been half an hour ago, and Jack had already been forbidden from throwing snowballs at random people in the street. Shame.

"Jack, you're old, right?" Jamie suddenly swivelled, watching the winter spirit curiously, while Jack pretended to look offended.

"Hey! The Tooth Fairy is much older, I'm _young_," Jack retorted, hoping that they could finally leave. Jamie just smiled innocently though.

"Yeah, for a _Guardian_. You've lived, like, a million times longer than me!"

Jack just shrugged.  
"So?"  
"So you were probably there! Help me with this question, I don't have a _clue_and I can't see it in my book!" Jamie explained, voice just shifting into whining, making gestures as was his habit, his gaze at Jack turning to pleading. Although entirely unsure he could help, he was glad for something to do. As Jamie had re-closed the window, there wasn't enough wind to perform his usual trick of floating over, so with a small grimace, he shifted himself manually for what felt like the first time in weeks. He might have been getting a little reliant on the winds and his powers.

However, peering down at Jamie's work, not a drop of it made sense to him. He remembered that as a human living in the countryside three hundred years ago, he'd not been schooled really, and as a spirit with powers, stopping to read things that never pertained to him made no sense. So he'd never learned what the odd script Jamie wrote in was, or how to read it. It was prevalent, he knew, but useless for him. It wasn't like anyone would put up a sign for him - the very thought was laughable.

"Read it out, then. Which one?" Jamie, sadly, did not take his hint, and merely glumly pointed to one midway down the page. Unseen to the boy, Jack rolled his eyes, and made his way back towards to his previous position, sorely tempted to freeze the paper to the desk so they could just _leave_already. "Dunno, just leave it?"

"_Jaaack_, I can't just leave it, Miss Trott will kill me if I don't finish this! We can't go out until I've done this question, it's the last one!" Jamie sighed, beginning to feel irritated, resting his cheek on his hand. "Don't you remember anything from that year?"

Jack was already tuning out, tempted to sit on the window so he could feel the wind, as he felt somewhat cut off sitting in here. Jamie had said he couldn't really work with the windows open though, so Jack had made that sacrifice, but he could feel it buffeting the glass, eager to be parted no longer.  
"Which year?" Jamie shot him a confused look.  
"Didn't you read it?"  
"Nope." Come to think of it, he was warming up, sitting here for at least an hour. He'd need to go outside soon.  
"_Can_ you read?"  
"Nope." Jack replied, hopping over to the windows and opening one, letting the breeze greet him and take away some of the excess heat.  
Jamie however, had been joking, aggravated at his inability to complete the question and Jack's unhelpfulness. However, if that was the problem...

"You can't?" Jack failed to hear his question, leant half-way out the window, having forgotten just how good the cold felt. "Jack!" He stretched out to tap the spirit's leg with his foot.

"Huh? What?" He pulled himself in, but remained leant against the open window.

"You really can't read?"

"Never learned, seemed a bit of a waste. Can't we go now?"

"But, but!" Jamie ignored his question, shocked. How could you go through life without knowing how to read? His life without reading would have been really dull, not being able to research all the mysterious creatures and spirits he wanted to. He was filled with the sudden desire to make Jack understand what he'd been missing by not knowing the written language. "You have to know! I'll teach you!" Jamie exclaimed, grin spreading on his face. He himself could teach Jack, in payment for Jack returning his beliefs and saving him from Pitch, too. He wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Jack watched determination take over Jamie's expression, and raised an eyebrow. He'd never needed to read, and frankly it sounded and looked a little dull, so why bother?  
"Jamie, that's really nice but it's fine." The north wind was whispering of due snowfall further north of Burgess, and although it wasn't too urgent yet, the demand would build. He really ought to go, but didn't want to just up and leave. Maybe he could take Jamie with him. Even though he knew he shouldn't, but it would be a fun trip for both of them.

"No, you have to!" Standing up, he pulled a stunned Jack over to the chair he'd previously occupied and sat him down in it. Smiling, he rummaged in his school bag for an extra pencil, and some scrap paper, as the winter spirit looked on, half bemused, and half trying to ignore the wind's desire to coax him and his powers northwards. Jamie noticed his hesitance, and smiled sweetly. "Please?"

Was he really supposed to try and defy that look?

Even the mighty Jack Frost couldn't have left then, as he mentally sent an apology to the awaiting breezes.

"Half an hour, then I'll have to go."  
Jamie just grinned, and set about drawing the letter A in the back of his notebook.

* * *

The experience was eye-opening to say the least. He never really expected to enjoy learning the script (the Latin alphabet, according to Jamie), or learning that there was so much he didn't _know_.

Like that there were different alphabets. Nihon had one, so did Rossiya, and some of the other northern countries near it. He hadn't been near them of course, but apparently quite a lot of southern countries also had different scripts. As a spirit, he just kind of knew what people were saying, but he'd never thought about why everyone sounded different, they just had. Now he knew that they were speaking different languages, and there were so many! He had a slightly impractical desire to learn all of them, although he did guess he had some time to do so.

Smiling, he hovered above a deep layer of snow, somewhere in the most northern reaches of Norge, (he'd learnt how to spell that only recently) and with one end of his staff, drew two sides of a tall triangle in the snow, then affixed a bar between the two, slightly higher than the end of the two lines but not too far up either, then, next to it, a smaller circle with a straight line on the right edge.

"A," he pronounced, "or 'ah'." He grinned, happy with his efforts, and moved on to the next letter, contentedly working his way through the alphabet, laughing slightly when he came to 'J'. That would probably always be his favourite letter.

* * *

Etching letters in the snow as he was doing quite a lot nowadays – although this time he was in one of the many quiet parts of Rossiya, a place Jamie called 'Russia' – Jack wondered if the other Guardians knew how to write. Of all of them, he guessed Tooth would; she seemed regal enough to have learnt while she was alive. Bunny probably couldn't, mostly due to the fact writing was only useful if a pen or whatever other instrument could be held easily. Then again, he recalled seeing Bunny hold a paintbrush, so maybe that wasn't really true. It seemed like a defunct skill for a rabbit, anyway. Sandy certainly couldn't, else he would have been able to communicate with them easily. Jack briefly thought about offering to teach him, and then decided against it. Sandy was old enough to put his three hundred years to shame, and did not need him stating something he didn't know. North might. If he did, it would only be to carve letters onto his toys… then again, Jack remembered that North had been the one to read his oath to him, so he must be able to. There was also writing on his globe, although it wasn't English, not as far as Jack recalled. He made a note to ask him next time.

Unexpectedly, a massive animal tracked across his hard work, and Jack scowled at it, recognising it as something he'd heard called a moose. Wasn't the howling blizzard enough of a hint about his view on interruptions? Moose weren't much fun. Grumpy creatures who were most definitely not afraid to use the antlers they had – and he would know, recalling a run in with one, which left him with at least one broken rib. It had taken forever to fix, and he was _not_ going to chance another one. Aside from giving it a foul look and considering freezing its feet to the floor, he let it go, disappointedly looking at the set of footprints trekking straight through his almost-perfect letters.

Sighing, he swept the staff across the affected area, watching as snow formed and filled in the moose footprints, leaving barely a mark to show the path it had taken.

About to restart, he felt the western wind swirl excitedly around him, waving his hair and clothes wildly about with news of snow and ice due in Britain, long due snow. How hadn't he noticed this before? Had he been that caught up in his practice?

Floating up higher, he saw the true extent of what he'd been doing, letters stretching over a very wide field of view, and grinned sheepishly to himself and the wind, promising it they could go in one moment. To leave this here was sure proof that he had been shirking his genuine duties, and so with a sweep of his staff, a flurry of snowflakes fell to fill in the indentations, gradually making them unnoticeable, then disappear completely, before the wind picked him up and flew him rapidly over the vast expanse of Rossiya towards mainland Europe.

He just hoped no one had noticed his absence.

* * *

If he'd had one of the timepieces on his wrist like some of the impatient humans had, he sensed he'd be looking at it every few minutes. He'd barely had time to sort the weather in England before the Tooth Fairy had found him, hurriedly told him about a Guardian meeting he had neglected to remember and dragged him to the North Pole, all the while being chased by winds that spoke of his distraction, wanting him to bring frost and cold to other places, a building demand that he hadn't helped himself by ignoring.

He felt stretched, somehow. The winds whirling around him were very animated, and if they could have properly spoken to him, they would either be scolding him for not addressing their concerns earlier, or pleading that he visit, afraid that he'd forgotten about them. He did his best to calm them, but he wasn't succeeding very well, and both Sandy and Bunny were sending him looks that clearly told him they'd noticed something wrong. Toothiana had begun a prolonged speech about how the quality of the children's teeth had improved, particularly in what the humans called the western world. North was chipping away at a block of ice, half listening to her, and half trying to offer everyone food or drink, despite all of them having refused at various times.

Jack wondered if they'd notice if he just left, tapping his fingers on the staff in an irritated fashion. He couldn't tell them he had loads of work, since they knew his work tended to be a gradual flow considering how fast he could bring snow storms to regions. They'd want to know why he hadn't done any of it, and what he'd been doing instead, and he was reminded that he'd promised Jamie they'd meet up later on today.

Something would have to give.

He looked about him, trying to see if there was a clear exit he could use to escape. If he was _really_ fast, he was sure he could methodically work some massive storms to cover most of what the humans called Asia, or at least the bits that needed snow, and then pass over Europe, then across to Canada then America… but that wouldn't give him any time to play with the children of those places. He adored Jamie Bennett, but, realistically, he wasn't the only kid who believed in him anymore, which was both nice and annoying by virtue of the fact that he didn't have quite as much time to play with him (or, as often seemed to happen, watch him do homework. Perhaps Jack would have to refuse next time, but he wasn't used to having enough stuff to do!). He owed it to the children everywhere, not just Burgess, that he visit and spend some time there.

As much as he despised the thought, he'd have to break his promise with Jamie. The Guardians would surely notice if he shirked any more of his duties to continue spending as much time with Jamie, and then might accuse him of not valuing the other children, but he _did_, just Jamie was special, and Jack wished he could just go and sort things already, he could leave a message on Jamie's window letting him know why he couldn't be there, except he couldn't, because he hadn't fully learnt to write yet, just letters, and he wasn't certain a picture would cover his situation right now-

"Jack! Stop freezing the bloody floor, some of us have to stand on it!"  
The winter spirit blinked, and cast his gaze over the area. True to Bunnymund's words, swirled patterns covered the entire globe room floor, and it looked as if those who hadn't shifted fast enough were stuck. Several elves had certainly found themselves glued, and looked very confused. The Easter Bunny himself had jumped up to the next floor's balcony, glaring at Jack, while North was standing on the ice, but by the Sandman's look, he'd been the one to shift him out of the way. Jack grinned sheepishly, before he also noticed the reason everyone was looking at him with some element of shock; the winds had worked themselves up into such a frenzy they formed a tornado around him, full of hail.

"I… I need to go…" It was no use staying. The floor wouldn't thaw out while he was in presence, and he couldn't retract his ice, only create more. The hail tornado would only follow him, and everything could be sorted. Maybe a few elves would need some new shoes, sure, but as far as he could see, there was no permanent damage done.

"Jack, I see you here when you are done, yes?" North spoke, obviously worried about something. Jack just vaguely nodded, testing the winds to see if they would take him anywhere. It was useless, he couldn't ride these winds, and no others were in the building. Stepping towards the door, he glared at the winds circling him, daring them to stay where they were, promising them snow if they followed him, before he ran towards the exit, the closer he got to the outside, the more the presence of other winds calmed those shrieking at him. Eventually reaching the cold exterior of Santoff Claussen, he found enough wind to carry him.

Northern Europe was closest, so he'd go there first, although he suspected already that he'd have to make two rounds – one to ease the fury of the winds he'd ignored, and another to actually spend time with the children of the various nations. Jack sighed, resigning himself truly to breaking Jamie's promise.

* * *

After he'd gone around the northern part of the world twice, he sensed the South Pole and mountainous regions of the southern part of the world needed some snow too, although luckily for him there were far fewer children in those areas. It had been worth it, he sensed he had some new believers, but he was _exhausted_. Once he had finished everything, he barely had enough strength to return to his lake, let alone bring snow to Burgess like he'd planned as an apology to Jamie and his friends for not being there.

Leaning up against a tree overlooking his lake, he tried to think of all the new happy faces as opposed to the disappointed more familiar ones.

* * *

North never paced. Jack hadn't known him that long, but he knew that North was not someone to pace. He himself might if something particularly aggravated him, but just watching North sort of walk up and down made him anxious, desperate to escape from whatever was about to happen. It wouldn't be fun, he knew that.

"Did it take a week to sort out?" North asked, pausing in his shifting to take a cookie from a plate an elf had offered to him. Taking the plate as well, he gravely waved it in Jack's direction, who shook his head – even if he did eat, he didn't feel happy enough to pretend he did.

"Well, no, but I had to…" Recover? Saying that would worry North even further. Stating 'rest' was the same dilemma, but saying something like he'd forgotten was obviously a lie. He wasn't sure he wanted the Guardians to know about his slightly-more-than regular visits to certain children in Burgess, or that he'd been slacking off trying to please a specific child and practicing writing. "I had to check up on stuff." Suitably vague, he thought, but North did not calm down.

"You were with Jamie?" Jack looked up at him with no small amount of panic. Even though it wasn't true in this instance, it had been for other times. Did they already know?

"No! No, I just had to sort some other stuff. You know, settle the winds, keep track of the storms, stuff like that." North was watching him with such an intense gaze he couldn't hold it, looking down and tapping the opposite wall of the window alcove with his staff, watching the patterns spill from it.

"No freezing the workshop. And Tooth says her fairies see you with him often. Sandman too."  
"I wasn't with him." Jack withdrew his powers to prevent the frost from spreading, silently adding a 'this time' in his head. He cursed that these windows opened inwards; it wasn't as simple to escape from the private workshop, something he was sure North had factored into the design.

"Perhaps not. But we all have to face the truth Jack. You hold him above other children, no? Guardians cannot have favourites." Without thinking, he pointed the hooked end of his staff at North, who – to his credit, knowing what Jack could do when angered – merely looked at it, unperturbed.

"Even though Jamie saved all of us? If you ask me, that deserves some attention, y'know? And he believes in us so much, we can't just, just _leave_ him! Are you suggesting I spend no time with him and let him stop believing? What if Pitch comes back? Then what'll we do?"

"I do not suggest you leave him, I suggest you see him less. There are other reasons why Guardians do not favourite – so we are not so crushed when child stops believing."

Jack's eyes widened significantly as North's words hit him. _Stop believing_. He hadn't even thought of that, up until now it had just been children see and adults don't – before being a Guardian, even that distinction hadn't mattered, because no one saw him. It hadn't really occurred to him that children become adults, and somewhere along the way, _stopped believing_. But North was suggesting that Jamie, _his_ Jamie would stop believing, the child who had been strong enough not only to continue believing, but to not fall to Pitch's nightmares in the first place? The child who'd saved them all, the very first human in three hundred years to see him, talk to him?

Jack Frost did not want to know. He didn't want to accept it was even possible, ridiculous and fear-inducing as the thought was. The childish part of him wanted to whine that if Jamie didn't believe, then there was no hope for him anymore. That part of him wanted to fly straight out the window and not stop until he was in Burgess and make Jamie promise to never, ever stop believing.

The Guardian part of him, the reasonable part, argued that North would know, as the sword-bearing Guardian of Wonder was much older than him, after all.

He'd never felt such a conflict in himself, and he fleetingly wondered if it genuinely was better to have been believed in and then lost, or to have never had it. It was stupid, of course – he wouldn't have taken infinite powers if they'd been offered in exchange for never being seen.

He needed time to sort this out, and it would definitely take more than a week.

"That's so selfish! Those kids _need_ us, and we just protect ourselves? I can't…" North surely anticipated him leaving, as he didn't even look mildly surprised when the window burst open, a gust of wind taking the awaiting winter spirit far from the workshop.

* * *

In blind fury, he found a lake and froze it, stealing some skates to distract himself from everything, from his thoughts that tumbled faster than he could understand them, his mind in turmoil. The weight of the skates prevented the wind from picking him up, so he could just skate around and around, without having to pay attention to where the wind wanted to take him. He just focused on pushing one leg forward, then the other, building up such momentum he felt like a blur, and fancifully thought that the speed might push the thoughts from his head. The pain in long under-used muscles and the shock of the exertion helped him forget.

When he could finally push himself around no longer, he didn't even bother removing the skates or braking, running into the side of the lake and falling into the newly-formed snow banks around the perimeters, caused by the severe blizzard that had laid about a dozen inches of snow and some amount of hail in the immediate area, which he had failed to notice for some time. He'd also ignored the winds pushing him around as he'd skated, but he hadn't enough effort to thank them, face down in a snow bank close to tears. Embarrassingly close to tears, but he wouldn't cry. His throat just felt tight and, once he'd mustered up enough thought to switch to laying on his back, watching the blizzard continue on around him, his vision was blurry.

He didn't _want_ to believe what North said. He knew it was true, but he wanted to ignore the conversation had ever taken place, that nothing would ever change from how it was now… A stark contrast to a few years ago, as short as two years ago when he would have given anything to change his life.

Yet try as he might, he couldn't ignore it. How could he? Every Guardian's deepest fear was being invisible again. Or worse. Pitch had mentioned something about the consequences of a Guardian not being believed in were worse than not having belief, so…

He didn't know what he'd do if Jamie stopped believing. Maybe that was what North had meant, not getting too close to any child, just being friendly to all children: with powers such as theirs, becoming upset could cause quite a lot of damage if it wasn't controlled. He'd called North selfish for thinking that, but… was it more selfish to remain with them? Would Jamie regret spending so much time with him, regret not making more human friends or spending time with the ones he had? After all, he wouldn't be able to help in the adult world, one that seemed to be full of responsibilities and hidden disappointments. Real friends, Jamie would be able to talk to them long into his life. They could help him and Jack couldn't, simple as.

Maybe it wasn't even worth thinking about. Jamie was, after all, only twelve. With a belief as strong as he had, maybe there were several years left in it, before Jack would have to face the cruel consequences of time's flow and accept that his first believer might not always be so.

He could ignore things. He had practice at that.

* * *

The first thing Jamie did was stare at him in what appeared to be horror. Not overly surprising, Jack ultimately thought, although he himself was quite shocked that his turmoil the other day had caused a blizzard with enough hail, picking up enough stones and other debris, that he'd managed to hurt _himself_. Everywhere hurt, and looking now, most of his visible skin was a dark bruised colour, speckled where he'd been hit by 'record-breaking' hail. Perhaps he hadn't imagined the sound of glass breaking and yelling. He had a throbbing headache and there may well have been some blood in his hair, if not there was certainly some dirt.

It was then that Jack finally put his brain into complete gear and thought, '_he should have waited a few more days_.'

There wasn't really enough wind, even with the window still open from his least graceful entrance ever, to hold him up, and his legs were still aching, inside and out, and frustratingly, they collapsed from underneath him. Jamie squeaked, jumping forward to catch him so at least his head didn't smack the floor like it would have done. Jack smiled wryly, attempting to make it seem like he didn't hurt quite as much as he did, but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone.

"Sorry, Jamie."

"Why say sorry to me? Who did this to you…?" Jamie whispered, obviously shocked. Maybe he thought an enemy had… Oh.

"No! No, no, it's fine, no one did this to me. Well, I did it, but that's different." The moment he said it, he realised he'd said it was 'fine' that he'd done it. Why couldn't he say anything right today? Jamie looked, if possible, more traumatised.

"You did this… to yourself..?"

"No! Yes, wait, I mean, I did, but not intentionally. I was mad, you know? I'm an idiot. Don't you ever get caught in my hail, Jamie. I mean it." His stern gaze was rather lacking in any kind of intimidating, so he gave it up. He grinned up at Jamie's worried face, although maybe it looked more like a grimace to the child. "I practiced the letters!" Obviously the randomness of the statement was enough to briefly overcome his worry, as confusion worked its way into the kid's eyes, and he tilted his head slightly, eloquently questioning with a 'huh?'. "The letters you taught me. You should have seen it; there was a massive field in Rossiy-Russia that was full of them." Jamie smiled slightly at that.

"You sound delusional Jack, sure you're okay?"

"Frankly, no, but I will be. Don't worry about me; I'm just going to sleep now…"

* * *

"Leave him alone, Abby! He's… hurt. Down. Go annoy Sophie or Mom." Jack frowned. Why wasn't he by his lake? It wasn't cold enough to be there, although he wasn't too warm, which was good. His head was colder than the rest of him, but he was comfortable. For once. The wind whispered around him slowly, comforting but with the kind of gentle prodding that was evidently checking he wasn't _too_ badly hurt.

Hurt.

He was hurt. Opening his eyes, he found himself looking not at an open sky, as he would normally have seen, but at an unnaturally white, smooth cloud. But it wasn't a cloud, clouds didn't have corners, so it wasn't a cloud, it was a human room, but… Jack put a hand to his face as he recalled coming here, last night when he was about as good shape as an icicle in summer.

"Jack! You're alive!" At that, he sat up, confused. As far as he knew, he'd been on the floor, his head on Jamie's knees, and floors weren't comfortable. From his new perspective he saw that he'd been moved to Jamie's bed, and something dropped from his forehead. Picking it up, he squinted at it for a moment, trying to decipher what it said. He got as far as F-R before Jamie realised what he was doing. "I thought you might need to be kept cold, I wasn't sure what to do…"

Putting it aside, Jack turned, and although he meant to address matters, his gaze was drawn to the window in shock. It was midday, so he'd surely been asleep a long time.

Before he could start explaining himself (and probably lying quite a bit too), Jamie flew forward and flung his arms around the spirit, beginning to sniff in what Jack hoped was relief. He wasn't too sure, but he looped his own arms around the child, even though it hurt and Jamie was holding on a little bit tight to be entirely comfortable, but he figured it didn't matter. In his stupor, he'd remembered about his broken promise, and decided that it had been a good idea to visit just then. It hadn't, but he'd only realised that too late, and he could definitely forgive Jamie if he was angry.

"Sorry Jamie. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come here, I shouldn't… but I did. Sorry." Jamie froze up for a second, before pulling himself back to look Jack in the eye, appearing somewhat distraught. Jack winced – again, the wrong thing to say at the wrong time!

"But I… where else would you go? I was so worried, I…" He looked off to the side, and bit his lip, trying not to start crying, although he was quite unsuccessful, Jack could tell, and felt horrible for being the one to make him feel so bad. Some Guardian he was. "You didn't do anything wrong, why are you sorry? I'm so happy you're okay!" Jamie pulled him back into another embrace, while Jack was able to feel him shuddering. They remained like that for some time, until Jack felt Jamie calm down some, before he decided to say anything else.

"I'm sorry for making you worry. I should have known I wasn't well, but I wasn't really in the best state last night… Sorry. You don't have to deal with this." He felt Jamie nod, and would have been content with that, until he remembered the start of the whole thing, North's comment about draining beliefs and children becoming adults, and the seed of unease returned to him. He couldn't not say anything now, he could cope with being really selfish this once and then he would try his best not to ever ask for so much again. "Jamie? Try… Try not to stop believing in me?" The silence wavered for a moment, filled only by the breezes that circled the two of them. Jack thought he wasn't going to get an answer, or that he hadn't been heard, until Jamie quietly, but defiantly, stated 'Never'.

Jack thought then that he'd been blessed with knowing, and being friends with, the best child on the entire planet. That single word was worth waiting three hundred and two years for.

* * *

Unfortunately the world didn't stop around them. There were still places in the world that required the cold and snow, and Jack wasn't one to stop and stay still for ages anyway – especially considering the trouble he'd gotten himself into by ignoring the weather's demand for snow. Knowing him, he'd probably heal more by moving around than sitting in one place. The winds promised to treat him kindly, and he promised a worried, reluctant Jamie that he'd check in once he was done.

Jack smiled the moment he was fully outside, and the winds began to greet him back into the open, bringing him back down to a temperature he was fully comfortable with – he'd belatedly noticed how Jamie had kept the windows open all night, and had probably slept on the chair (if he'd slept at all) wrapped up in his warmest gear. The poor kid must have been freezing, but still sat with him – Jack wasn't sure why he'd ever doubted.

* * *

Returning from his work, Jack felt a unique mix of energised and completely exhausted. In truth, the wind had done most of the work for him, and he was feeling much better in spirit (he laughed internally at the irony), but his bruises still hurt, and his muscles complained still, and though he'd have liked to curl up in a deep snow bank by his lake, he couldn't break his promise to Jamie. Not now, especially: now the kid knew he was hurt, it wouldn't be much of a step to think something had happened when in fact, Jack had merely not bothered to turn up when prompted. If Jamie hadn't known his state, it would be easy to dismiss his lack of presence with being busy rather than injured. Jack felt like it would be far more of a betrayal to not see him now, and so eased himself on the wind towards Jamie's still open window. Landing on it, he noticed that both Jamie and his mother were in the room, and his mother did not look impressed.

"Jamie Bennett, you are in big trouble! Not only did you skip school, I also got a call from your history teacher saying that you failed to complete the set homework!" She put her hands on her hips and looked at Jamie, who was facing away from the window, in a disappointed fashion. "It was also freezing when I came in this room this morning. You'll catch flu that way! Why were the windows open? And why were you asleep on the chair?" Jack ignored most of what she'd said, confused. Jamie had skipped school? Wasn't that supposed to be a really big thing?

"Jamie, you… You skipped school to check _I_ was okay?" He forgot that only Jamie could hear him. The child swivelled, relief and glee prevalent in his eyes, and ignoring his mother's confusion, ran over to him.

"Jack! You're alright! I'm so glad." While his concern was endearing, Jack was now aware that he'd caused even more trouble for him.

"But Jamie, you shouldn't have skipped school, I would have been okay." Jamie shook his head, looking as if it was very obvious why he'd done it, eyes wide with the worry creeping back in.

"I thought you were going to die!" The winter spirit blinked once, then opened his mouth to tell Jamie he couldn't – but really, he didn't know. He might not have died yet, but that didn't mean he couldn't, and he certainly hadn't tested that to the boundaries. If he could get injured, that meant in theory, he could reach a state of injury where he could not repair himself. What was death if not that? He thought back to the Sandman dying, only returning due to the overwhelming belief of a few children. Maybe an immortal's death was becoming invisible to not only humans but other immortals too.

Jack smiled to cover up his more-than slightly morbid realisation, and placed a hand on Jamie's shoulder.

"I'm here now, anyway. I'm alive, don't you worry. I'll sleep outside tonight, but I'll check in in the morning. I'll be fine." Briefly ruffling his brown hair, Jack let the wind take him into the tree close to the Bennett's house, ready to be flown to his lake, and just caught Jamie bolding telling his mother that he'd thought his best friend was going to die and was worried – Jack liked to think that she was in shock enough to let the kid off with it. There would be enough punishment from the school side of things, as he understood.

* * *

That continued for around two weeks, until Jack's visible wounds healed. Jamie was mostly let off by his mother, apart from a promise not to lie to her next time, and was most definitely not let off by the school, most of the teachers whose lessons he'd missed piling a load of homework on him, but he said he didn't mind too much. After those two weeks, they mostly returned to their previous routine, Jack swinging by occasionally to continue learning to read and write. The next time Jack saw the Guardians was their next meeting, and he was sure North had brought it forwards to ask him about it. He'd arrived first, Bunny arriving not much later with Tooth and Sandy coming in together a little while later.

He knew it was coming. He was even warned slightly, North turning to him once the other Guardians had given their (meagre) news with his arms crossed, an indiscernible expression on his face.

"You caused him much pain." Jack looked down from where he was sat, perched precariously on the handrail of the globe room, and idly watched the yetis bustle around on the floors below him. He could feel the gaze of the other Guardians, perhaps confused as to what it was about, perhaps not.

"Yeah." It wasn't like he could have denied it. They probably _all_ felt Jamie's worry. "But I thought about what you said, North. And I..." He looked up, fixing his gaze on the large Guardian. "I'll deal with it when it comes to that. _If_ it comes to that. And," he hopped off the rail, strolling forwards towards the four of them with a mischievous smile, "Sorry, but I can't see him less. He's teaching me to read, and I like it too much. Besides, he'd miss me." With a final nod towards them, he walked past their confused faces, ready to call snow over North America. The last thing he heard was Bunnymund, exclaiming loudly enough for the entire of Santoff Clausen to hear.

"When did you start talkin' in bloody riddles, mate?"

Jack Frost just grinned, as he usually did. Since now, he guessed.

* * *

_Just a few notes, Jack, being a spirit, probably hasn't learned all the English names for the countries - isn't it a little strange to use English when, in a country, they'd refer to their own land under their own name? Hence, America and Canada stay the same, but he refers to Russia as Rossiya (I believe it's something like that) and Nihon should, hopefully, be Japan. I was going to put China as well, but I couldn't find how to write it phonetically, so I didn't bother. _

_Sorry if the formatting is odd, as well. I quite liked how I had it on Word, with indents and such, but of course, this site doesn't like that, does it?_

_The title - rime - comes from the name given to frost that forms while there is wind around, often resulting is horizontal frost on overhangs. _

_I'm also sorry that they're not very in character; although I tried, I don't think I managed it well. But I hope you enjoyed this, even slightly, and thank you for reading! _


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